Publication: Frank Leslie's Weekly
Date: MARCH 17, 1877
Judge Co.Title: BEAUTIFUL AS AN ARCHANGEL.BYBURKE O'FARRELL.CHAPTER X.—BARNEY
BY
BURKE O'FARRELL.
CHAPTER X.—BARNEY O'REILLEY.
Rokeby Hall was a fine, old, roomy, rambling place, half hidden amongst the lonely woods of Heronsmere, but standing in pleasant grounds of its own, with wild, straggling, mossy lawns, across which the stately pheasants used to stalk majestically in the dewy Autumn mornings, unmolested by the gun of Barney (who, before 12 A. M. was generally in his bed); great, sunny, walled-in fruit-gardens, and a long range of substantial stables and kennels, where a clock drowsily chimed the hours and quarters, and the baying of the dogs occasionally broke the silence that reigned around.
Originally Rokeby Hall had been inhabited by
Mr. Craven's agent, a young man of good family
and some private means, who had kept his hunters
and dogs
The O'Reilleys lived in good style, and managed to cut a considerable dash on precarious means; that is, they kept a well-trained establishment of smart-looking servants, gave swell dinner-parties, where the wine was always tip-top, and the turbot and venison irreproachable; drove a spanking pair of grays or bays, and rode very good hacks to the cover-side, where there was always a spruce groom, all spic-and-span, walking their hunters up and down, while another, with their second horses, rode leisurely through the lanes to wait in some convenient spot till they were wanted; in fact, their horses were decidedly the O'Reilleys’ strong point—a circumstance which ere now had given rise to ill-natured remarks, I am very sorry to say.
Still, in spite of all this, in spite of the capital
wine, their thoroughbred horses and their well-behaved
servants, which must have required a very
decent income to maintain, no one could ever discover,
with any degree of exactness, from whence they
derived their resources; no, not even in Knewstub,
or the neighborhood, where it was the particular
business of everybody to find out everybody else's
business, from the amount of wages given by his
Grace the Duke of Kingstown's housekeeper to his
lowest scullery wench, down to the number of shirts
owned by the Reverend Anastasius Sympkin Jones.
(They were all dreadfully darned, and very few in
number. You see, the fascinating young curate went
in for ritualism and M. P. waistcoats; therefore, as
nobody could possibly tell whether he wore shirts
or not, what was the use of having any? And the
Reverend Anastasius—with an aristocratic wife, who
could not touch anything useful with the tips of her
fingers, and swarms of children (of course, he had
married twice), all to be kept on eighty pounds a
year—was not rich enough to indulge in any inward
and invisible luxuries,
But to return to the mooted question of the O'Reilley income. For myself, I have reason to believe that their property was not in the funds. More I do not like to say or hint at, for fear of seeming uncharitable.
Neither did the good people in the neighborhood know very distinctly anything relating to the antecedents of the O'Reilleys, where they came from, when they had been married, who the paternal parent of Mrs. O'Reilley was (I am not altogether sure myself), or how many years it was since Barney had been requested by the colonel of his regiment to withdraw his name from the army list, in consequence of a curious fatality which always enabled him “to win” at cards or billiards—a fatality, however, which caused such loud murmurs and uncharitable remarks amongst his brother officers, that, combined with other things, he soon found the regiment grown too hot to hold him.
They had been established at Rokeby Hall for a
little more than two years, and during that time
had contrived to effect an excellent standing in
county society, although they had brought no
legitimate introductions to any of the neighboring
families; but the style in which they lived, Barney's
crack calvary regiment-air, the cockade in their
groom's hat, and their crest—a game-cock crowing
on a dunghill—rampant over everything, were easy
passports to them in that remote district, where
everybody was glad to know anybody to prevent
death from
I don't mean to say that they walked straight into county society at once, for they did not; county society is the coldest and most suspicious of all societies, and it eyed the O'Reilleys with its usual mistrust. “Who are they? Where do they come from?” it inquired, cautiously.
“Oh!” said Bentinck Craven, who had a trainer whose father's wife's brother had once lived as groom with Lord Blarneybraggart, of Blarneystone Castle, County Wicklow, whose daughter had married Captain O'Reilley's father, “they are the O'Reilleys of Ballacreigh.” Bentinck called it Ballascreech, but he had very indefinite notions as to where the ancestral seat of the O'Reilleys’ was situated.
He also told everybody that Mrs. O'Reilley was an uncommonly fine woman, and very lady-like; that the captain was a deuced nice fellow, regular man of the world, seen plenty of life in the highest society, and that he was, in fact, nearly related to The O'Donoghue, which fact Bentinck tried to demonstrate to others as it had been demonstrated to him; but as Barney's own explanation had been something of the nature of that riddle, “If Tom's father was Jack's son,” etc., with the best of intentions he made rather a muddle of the affair; but perhaps that was all the better.
After that, one or two of the principal families round Heronsmere called, headed by Northcote Smythe, Esq., M. F. H., and his wife, Lady Emily Smythe, of Northcote Chase; and so, by degrees, as lawyers go to heaven, the O'Reilleys became enrolled in county society, and were accepted as members thereof, at least tacitly, by nearly all the community.
And now as the O'Reilleys are destined to come before the footlights pretty often during the course of this tragedy, comedy, burlesque, farce, or whatever you choose to call it, in three acts, perhaps I had better assume the prerogative of M. Soulié's satanic hero, and show a little of the backs of the cards for the enlightenment of the intelligent public.
Captain O'Reilley really and truly belonged to the “owld ancient family” he claimed as his progenitors. Unhappily the race was not as honorable as it was old, and at the present time was in a lamentable state of decrepitude; still it is far better to come from a long succession of scamps, if they are well-known, than to have no grandfathers —at least I think so; so did Barney O'Reilley, although I know Pope differed from us in opinion. For instance, I myself, possess an ancestor on the maternal side who was quite a hero in his way, a sort of Dick Turpin, who followed the exciting and dangerous profession of a highway robber in the neighborhood of Bloxam Scrubbs, in Oxfordshire, and was executed for the same, having been hanged at Oxford some three hundred years ago; this is a fact, and we are rather proud of our ancestor than otherwise.
“Every one knows the O'Reilleys of Ballacreigh,” said Barney, magnificently, to all his English friends who did not know them; and he was right as far as the County Cork and the surrounding counties were concerned; but their fame was not a good one. In the penal times when the laws were rigorously enforced against Catholics, the O'Reilleys, like all those who had enriched themselves by apostatizing, were the most inveterate and bloodthirsty persecutors of the ancient faith, and made their authority as magistrates (very great in those days) a warrant for acts of the most ferocious barbarity. “Many a papist has my old grandfather shot down like a hare with his own hand!” Barney would say, enthusiastically, to some red-hot Protestant, “and many a priest has been strung up without bell, book or candle, in the courtyard of the old castle at Ballacreigh.”
But ill-luck went with the O'Reilleys, and dodged them like the ghost of their crime; they were a race of spendthrift libertines and blackguards, who went to the devil one after the other in such regular succession, that when they departed this life, they did so in the sure and certain expectation of meeting their forefathers in another and a warmer world.
Barney's grandfather, the worst of the lot where all were bad, had possessed Ballacreigh, with an income of fourteen thousand pounds a year; but when he died, and the property passed to his son, it was so incumbered with mortgages that it barely brought in seven thousand. Barney's father, a true O'Reilley, worthy of his race, had married a dashing daughter of a penniless blackleg peer with the shadiest of reputations on the turf, as his second wife, he being at that time considerably over fifty; and, between them all, the libertine father, the dashing wife, the rakish son and the blackleg peer, they speedily managed to make ducks and drakes of the remaining residue of this once fine fortune; the entail was cut off, all the available property sold bit by bit, and directly after the father's death the mortgagees foreclosed, and Ballacreigh went out of the family which had held it so many hundred years to such bad purpose.
Barney at that time held a commission in the Royal Irish Hussars, where, to the ill-fame of his family, he added a very considerable share on his own account, and was universally recognized as the most dissolute, unscrupulous and unprincipled officer in the service, where he had the character of being a cowardly bully, a braggart and a libertine.
The white-haired old colonel, who was like a father to his regiment, used privately to warn the young subs against Captain O'Reilley; the men all hated and feared him as a cold-blooded tyrant and martinet; and the officers looked upon him with coldness and suspicion in consequence of various floating scandals that were secretly whispered, most injurious to his reputation as a gentleman and a man of honor.
His name had been unpleasantly mixed up in several shady turf transactions and betting scandals, which had been hushed up mysteriously, when his honor required that they should be sifted. Moreover, though he was known to have very little private fortune, if any, yet he lived in a style equal to other officers who were men of family and property; and this, combined with his notorious luck at lansquenet, his known good-fellowship in private, if not in public, with certain hangers-on of the turf, of decidedly smutty repute, and his propensity for horse-dealing in private (which had once nearly brought him to an unpleasantly conspicuous position at the Assizes, only that, being a man who loved darkness rather than light, and decidedly objecting to have his antecedents and the numerous ingenious methods by which he managed to increase his limited income made the subjects for a facetious counsel for the plaintiff to exercise his wit upon, he preferred coming to an arrangement beforehand with the pugnacious purchaser of his glandered mare, so that the matter was never brought into court), looked decidedly bad.
As to his moral character, if he had ever possessed one, which I doubt, having been bred from such a stock, he had not a shred left, and officers with wives and daughters would as soon have thought of introducing the arch-seducer into their homes as Captain O'Reilley.
CHAPTER XI.—DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.
Douglas was the native town of Mrs. Cocks, who, in her maiden days, had rejoiced in the name of Skinner, and had been born and bred in a tobacconist's shop on the quay, which was both small and dirty, where she, and her sister Henrietta, had carried on small flirtations over the grimy counter with a very promiscuous lot of hirsute and loud-voiced nautical customers, not always too respectable, who took out their change in finger-squeezings, badinage and repartee, even going a step further occasionally, and receiving in return sharp slaps in the face from those dainty and unceremonious fingers that rolled up ounces of bird's-eye so deftly, and gave an extra flavor to the cavendish—Douglas is the place for prime cavendish —by their touch; at least so the bearded, weather-worn looking crews of those fast-sailing yachts and trim little two-masted brigs lying in the harbor under the surveillance of the Custom House officers, used to say.
The Skinner establishment, and the paternal Skinner in particular, when he was at home, were also regarded with uneasiness and suspicion by those same officials, who were always prowling about in search of a rat which they had long smelt, and had almost exhausted their ingenuity to nab.
But the paternal Skinner was far too old a bird to be caught napping. He was the skipper of one of the above-named brigs, and was in the habit of leaving the shop to the female portion of his family, while, like the immortal Lambro of Byron, he was carrying on his somewhat exciting and dangerous avocation as a “sea lawyer.”
But one day, or rather night, this old bird met with an older bird, and then there was the deuce to pay. The scuffle was a hard one; there was blood shed, which was called a harder name when the matter came into court, and the Manx Lambro went a-sailing over the herring-pond at the expense of Government, and may even, for aught I know to the contrary, still be enjoying the hospitality of Her Gracious Majesty.
After that the poor old nigger on the quay, with his variegated waistband, became sadly reduced in circumstances; in fact, he was soon obliged to give in altogether; the business was sold, the female Skinners departed from the scene of their disasters, and Douglas town knew them no more. Henceforth the news of their proceedings was of the vaguest kind; it was, indeed, rumored that the sisters had both become public characters, and Henrietta was reported to have been seen amongst the “troupe” of a traveling circus, but nothing was positively known concerning them; and when, fifteen years afterwards, Mrs. Harcourt Cocks reappeared in Douglas, just six months after the death of her husband (who had been the acting manager and lessee of a little provincial theatre), she came as a stranger, and nobody recognized in the elegantly dressed widow the Leonie Skinner of old days, whose character had been thought somewhat shady even in Douglas town, where the natives are not cited as being “too particular.”
By a curious coincidence Captain O'Reilley, late of the Royal Irish Hussars, was making a temporary stay in the Isle of Man at the same time, and for reasons best known to himself, was living in the strictest retirement.
He lodged in the Buck's Road, and every morning as he sat in his little odorous parlor, breakfasting on two halfpenny kippered herrings, and a cup of blackish-looking lodging-house coffee, he was wont to see the bereaved widow pass slowly by the window, leading her fatherless boy by the hand, who rang all the bells by the way, and shot peas at inoffensive cats basking on the doorsteps. Soon after that, his toilet complete, Barney himself would sally forth with his limp flag basket under his arm, his white sand shoes, and his fascinating mustache, killingly enhanced by that artful tallow-candle operation; and would take his way, limping elegantly down to the market-place, to haggle with the fish-women and greengrocer for his two-penny dinner; after which he would saunter on to the pier to see what yachts were lying in the harbor, and look after that “deuced fine widow, with the neat ankles, and the nice little fortune,” who, as people said—uncharitably, of course, but Douglas, though not particular, is fond of scandal, as all small towns are—had been so anxious to provide a father for her orphan son, that one gentleman of property had only saved himself from her charms by taking flight, while another would certainly have fallen a victim, only, being compelled to join his regiment under marching orders, he died of cholera in the meantime, and so was spared the expense of a breach-of-promise action.
Captain O'Reilley, however, shared the general public impression concerning the worldly goods left behind him by Cocks defunct, and had no objection to take the fascinating widow to his bosom, if he might thereby succeed in buttoning up her apocryphal fortune in his capacious breeches-pocket. He did not deny to himself that just at the present time a little ready money might be extremely useful, although, having but recently sold out of the Hussars, he might be supposed to have some of the proceeds of his captaincy still left; but the fact was, he had left the army rather suddenly at last, although it had been long evident to the regiment that, sooner or later, it and the gallant captain would have to part; the feather breaking the camel's back was a whisper well authenticated that Barney had been the most active agent of his right honorable mother-in-law's noble father in a decidedly shady turf transaction, and had received a high commission on bets booked on a favorite that was made safe by the most disgraceful trick of hocusing that ever came to light. Many of the officers lost largely, one or two were almost ruined, and the old colonel took the opportunity to notify politely to Captain O'Reilley that it was just as well he should send in his resignation, and avoid a more disagreeable exposure of his private affairs. Barney, therefore, announced to his friends who were few, and to his acquaintances who were many, that having just come in for his Irish property, he was compelled, with deep regret, to deprive Her Majesty of a further continuance of his valuable services. After that pleasing communication, he disappeared mysteriously from the haunts of those who knew him (a fact which surprised no one, for his little pecuniary difficulties had long been patent to the world), and turned up in Buck's Road, Douglas, Isle of Man. There he still kept up the pleasant fiction about his property, especially after he became acquainted with the interesting widow; furthermore, he went into mourning and wore a deep band round his hat. “For the poor old governor,” he said to Leonie one day, with a mournful shake of the head as he contemplated it. But if it was indeed for his lamented progenitor, I suppose Barney wore it on the principle of “better late than never,” seeing that the late Cornelius O'Reilley, of Ballacreigh Castle, had been dead for at least thirteen years; and that at the time of the good old gentleman's decease, his only son being deeply engaged in a certain interesting affair of a private and horsey nature, had taken no notice whatever of the fact—to be sure he knew well enough that no very substantial benefit would accrue to him from the sad event.
“Faix, it's sorry I was to lave the owld sarvice entirely,” added Barney, “and sorry they were to part with me; by the same token every man in the ridgement was shedding tears the morning I left; ‘God bless yer honor; long life an’ ivery blessin’ attend you,’ said they; ‘shure ’tis a kind officer you've bin to us; the prayers of us all will go wid you’—(the poor divils, benighted Paypists every one o’ them!) And the officers, shure they ’ach and all loved me like a brother, and the owld colonel—stop till I show you this testimonial he gave me!” (She would have had to stop a long while if she had done so.) “Yes, it's sorry I was to leave them all; but what can a man do when he's had a big estate left him?” and Barney sighed.
“Go and live on it, I should think,” answered Leonie, with a charming smile; “hunt, fish, shoot, set up a four-in-hand, give dinner-parties, go to the county balls—marry;” and then Mrs. Cocks looked down at her black dress, and sighed too. “Ah! when my beloved Harcourt was alive,” here the hem-stitched mourning handkerchief came out, and was applied daintily to her eyes, with due reference, however, to belladonna and delicately-penciled eyebrows—“we—we—did the same.”
After that Mrs. Cocks questioned some of her friends on the subject of Ballacreigh Castle, whether they had ever heard of it or not. “Of course,” answered one lady, who believed that the captain was thinking matrimonially of her, “everybody knows the O'Reilleys of Ballacreigh; Captain O'Reilley is the last of the name, too, and the grandson of the Earl of Ballybraggart, of Blarneystone Castle, who will leave him all his fortune.”
Barney also lost no time in making private inquiries as to the affairs of the charming Leonie; and the information he received was as reliable and satisfactory as hers. Harcourt Cocks had been a man of the people, indeed, but rich, oh! so rich, a cotton man, or an ironfounder, or something of that kind, and Mrs. Cocks had his property all in her own hands. And so it came to pass one night, after a convivial little evening spent together at the house of a mutual friend, and a savory supper, at which lobster salad, lamb, cold ducks, and claret cup were followed by the excellent contraband whisky, otherwise potheen, of the “owld counthrie.”
Captain O'Reilley was asked to see the widow home; and on the way swore all kinds of appropriate things by the stars and the moon. Mrs. Cocks said something about “so soon” and “her poor dear husband”; but, nevertheless, Barney returned to Buck's Road an engaged man.
The courtship of this admirably assorted couple was not of long duration; both Captain O'Reilley and the charming Leonie were considerably in debt, both were equally anxious to get rid of their liabilities at the expense of the other, and both were equally in continual fear of something turning up to betray their false position; so Barney, with fond impatience, urged on the wedding, and Leonie tenderly acceded to his importunities; and less than six, months after the memorable supper and the declaration, inspired by duns and whisky that followed it, Captain O'Reilley, late of the Royal Irish Hussars, and son of the late Cornelius O'Reilley, Esq., of Ballacreigh Castle, County Cork, Ireland, to Leonie, eldest daughter of Captain Skinner, and widow of the late Harcourt B. Cocks, Esq., to the hymeneal altar.
It was a romantically quiet wedding, and took place at Kirk Braddon. When the ceremony was over the happy pair drove off to some out-of-the-way little cove on the other side of the island, where Barney had taken lodgings at a lonely farmhouse, that they might spend the honeymoon in the sole enjoyment of each other's society.
Whether that enjoyment was as great as they anticipated, or what happened at the mutual revelation which tore the vail from their fond eyes, I cannot say; I only know that Douglas saw them no more, or their creditors either. They disappeared suddenly and mysteriously; no one knew how, whither, or where.
The next two years are a blank. At the end of that time they are residing at Wiesbaden, “living like fighting-cocks, by Jove!” as the young men said, who buzzed, like so many stupid flies, into the net that Leonie baited for them with her wiles and smiles, and straightway were devoured, legs and all, by that cunning old spider, Barney O'Reilley.
From this, I opine that the worthy pair had wisely determined to make the best of their matrimonial mistake, and (like the apostles), having neither silver nor gold to speculate, had made a joint stock-company of their wits; and the result showed that they had not done amiss. Fly-catching was a lucrative trade in Wiesbaden, and in a few years they were able to return to England and live respectably on their profits, as we have seen them.
(
PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.
UNITED STATES.
COLORADO.
The miner, though prone to enjoy in Winter the fruits of his Summer toil, is often compelled to remain in the vicinity of his work; and there are many mining towns, located on the very site of mineral wealth, where gangs of men toil the year round away down on the levels, where January and July are precisely the same. And these towns, carefully provided during the Autumn with all possible comforts and necessities, pass the long Winter cut off from the world, except for the means of snow navigation, as completely as though located at one of the poles.
Here, too, is wealth to the experienced trapper, who, with his trail-sled, makes his daily round of many miles along his lines of traps, after traversing drifts a hundred feet in depth. Over hundreds of miles the mails are carried only on snowshoes for six months in the year—each sturdy carrier familiar with a route that would simply appall the “pilgrim” with its difficulties. To make a single misstep on some one of the many bad places would be fatal—to slip or stumble, to break a shoe, or see it, perhaps, just eluding the frantic clutch made in falling, ship away, and shoot, with constantly increasing speed, down some terrible declivity, till it disappears a mile away, where he can never recover it.
The Norwegian shoe, with some acknowledged disadvantages, is still a favorite with the older hunters and trappers; and for the mere sport of snowshoeing, especially in a hilly region, will undoubtedly commend itself to boys fond of coasting. The mountain-bred youth of the border lands recalls with delight the many times that he has “zigzagged” or “tacked” laboriously to the top of the hill, or “divide,” or mountain-range; the thrill, the burning friction of the keen air, as he cut his way through it like an eagle swooping valleyward; the sense of danger, just enough to add one beat to the pulse, as he almost touched rock or tree, or shot sheer across the thinly covered mountain-stream. Avernus itself, in a mild form, might await him, without taking from the enjoyment materially: and maybe he will recall the unselfish wish for some one to help him enjoy the tremendous fury of a mishap, like that in the “comedy” illustration herewith, where a too sudden check of his speed at the termination of a “run” has caused his shoes to bend like a bow, then to shoot the incautious wearer headlong in a short arc to his very feet in the fleecy cushion beyond.
The hunters, perhaps, are more than any other class indebted to the snowshoe, the Winter months being of all the year most enjoyable to the lovers of the chase.
The elk, easiest of all things that run the hills to find and approach, unable to cross the deep drifts, are walled in by thousands, with a few hundreds of square miles of rough country to feed over. It is no difficult matter to get within range—much harder, indeed, to haul the dressed meat home on the trail-sled or “train” than to find and kill it.
Sometimes accident or sickness calls into use the “Rocky Mountain Ambulance,” with its train of hardy bearers. It is always improvised, the corps having no regular organization; but a braver never did service on any field. When we recall the unselfish heroism that has marked the careful rescue of sick and wounded men from remote points over high and rough routes in midwinter, by those having but the universal human interest in the sufferer, often without fee or reward other than gratitude roughly expressed, often at the cost of the rescuers, who could scarcely afford to scorn the idea of payment, we are prompted to uncover in silent respect for our real fellowmen, who unostentatiously do and forget that they have done their duty.
The webbed snowshoe patterns vary in shape, make, size and finish, with the peculiarities of the regions where they severally originate. Of those that have found their way into the mountain country, the “Maine” is broad, short and strong for close-growing timber, where the snow is deep and soft, and where there is little room to turn; and the “Chippawa,” long, light, narrow, turned-up at toe, adapted to light, crusty snow, sage-bottoms where the brush forms cavities, and the short shoe is easily and provokingly entangled, and to steep hillsides, where it “slews” about and catches under the crust, tripping the most experienced wearer.
The shoe of Norway is slipped over, never raised from the ground. On the contrary, the native or “web” is lifted, the front portion of it at least, at each step. Being very broad, its edge is at each step passed over that of its companion. The others slide side by side, almost touching. The “web” takes hold firmly and never slips, so that the wearer walks easily up a steep hill, while the Norwegian painfully zig-zags up one side and shoots like lightning down the other, which the “web-shod” foot finds more painful than the ascent, if very abrupt.
INVESTIGATIONS which were very recently carried through by a French physician, Dr. Fleury, of Bordeaux, have adduced facts showing that our natural impulse to use the members on the right side of the body is clearly traceable to probably physiological causes. Dr. Fleury, after examining an immense number of human ancephale, asserts that the left anterior lobe is a little larger than the right one. Again, he shows that, by examining a large number of people, there is an unequal supply of blood to the two sides of the body. The brachiocephalic trunk, which only exists on the right of the arch of the aorta, produces, by a difference in termination, an inequality in the waves of red blood which travel from right to left. Moreover, the diameters of the subclavian arteries on each side are different, that on the right being noticeably larger. The left lobe of the brain, therefore, being more richly hematosed than the right, becomes stronger; and as, by the intersection of the nervous fibre, it commands the right side of the body, it is obvious that that side will be more readily controlled. This furnishes one reason for the natural preference for the right hand, and another is found in the increased supply of blood from the subclavian artery. The augmentation of blood we have already seen suggested; but the reason for it is here ascribed to the relative size of the artery, and not to any directness of path from the heart. Dr. Fleury has carried his investigations through the whole series of mammifers: and he finds that the right-handed peculiarities exist in all that have arteries arranged similar to those of man. At the same time, such animals, notably the chimpanzee, the seals, and the beavers, are the most admit and intelligent.
THE President of Switzerland now receives a salary of $2,700 per annum.
THE five family mansions of the Rothschilds in Paris are valued at 100,000,000 francs.
FELIX REGAMY, the caricaturist, is attached to the French Government mission in Japan.
THIERS has resumed his social dinner parties, the number of his guests never exceeding seven to eight.
EUGENIE has rented her villa at Florence to an American family. They pay a big rent for the distinction.
THE King of Sweden has just become a Freemason; also the Crown Prince. The ceremony was held in a newly built hall, in the presence of 1,600 brethren.
MR. I. D. PEABODY, the only surviving brother of the late Mr. George Peabody, of London, is at present in this city, at the residence of his son.
MR. FROUDE, the historian, has accepted the invitation of the Glasgow University Independent Club to become their candidate for the office of Lord Rector at the next election.
PATTI desires it to be distinctly known that the
reports that she eloped from St. Petersburg are “entirely
inaccurate.” Thus another of the
MRS. ELIZABETH BRIGHT, sister-in-law of John Bright, the English statesman, is traveling through this country. She was recently in Baltimore, where she had an occasion to express approval of the woman suffrage movement.
MAJOR-GENERAL A. B. EATON, who had been visiting his son, Professor Eaton, of Yale College, died suddenly of heart disease on February 21st, at New Haven. He was a graduate of West Point of 1826, and seventy-one years of age.
MRS. A. T. STEWART has given to her brother, Mr. Charles P. Clinch, the ex-Assistant Collector of the Port, the title to a house on Thirty-fourth Street, opposite her own house. The property is worth $50,000. Mrs. Stewart adds to the gift an annuity of $10,000 a year.
REV. BERNARD KEENAN, of Lancaster, Pa., the oldest clergyman in the country, died recently. He was ninety-eight, and during his pastorate, Lancaster, from an obscure borough, became a prosperous city. The late Thaddeus Stevens was one of his best friends.
GUSTAVE DORÉ has been visiting Switzerland, and has brought back to Paris several important studies he made among the mountains, almost in the cloud regions. He was accompanied by a number of hardy mountaineers, who carried for him all the paraphernalia needed for painting pictures.
MR. H. W. DE STOECKEL, architect of the pedestal of the statue of Liberty to be erected on Bedloe's Island, will return to France on March 7th, to complete his plans. The Government of the United States will furnish him with a topographic map of the island and all the necessary drawings.
THE most beautiful baby in the world is said to be the son of Mr. H. M. Lummis, of Orange Mountain Station, N. J., on the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad. The infant is eight or nine months old, and has the classic perfection of features given by Raphael to his maidens, with baby inence and grace.
TUESDAY, February 27th, was Longfellow's birthday, and he was seventy years of age. He has reached man's allotted term of years, but is to-day as hearty—as appreciative of the wonders of this life—as he ever was. Speaking of what it will be, his fame is young, for as the years roll on, the works of the first and the greatest of America's poets will grow with every succeeding generation.
THE late Admiral Alden once dined with Queen Victoria. One Summer, a few years ago, he happened to be passing the Isle of Wight and noticed the royal standard floating from the tower of Osborne House. He at once sailed a little nearer the shore, thereby getting his ship aground, and saluted the Queen. She soon sent off an invitation for the admiral to dine with her, and that gallant officer did not refuse.
PRESIDENT ELIOT, of Harvard College, has written a letter to Professor Joynes, of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., saying that he thinks that the parents of children who go to high schools should contribute a part of the cost of maintaining such schools. He would have grammar schools for the poor, and open the high schools to all who could not afford to pay, but he would impose a tax of $40 or $50 a year upon the children of wealthy parents.
HARRY P. VAN AKEN, fourteen years old, a Philadelphia schoolboy, was presented with a hunting-case gold watch, valued at $150, last week, for his conduct during a fire in the school-building on February 6th. On that day, the boy, having been sent downstairs, found that the building was on fire, but instead of raising an alarm he quietly informed the teachers in the various rooms, who as quietly dismissed the children under their charge, and got them all out, and without a panic.
THE present King of Greece is a young man of exceeding modesty and frankness. He talks good English, and with the freedom and joyousness of a boy. The queen is famous for beauty and the sweetness of her manner; the whole nation seems to be in love with her, she is so gentle and good. The pair have four ruddy-cheeked children, who are always jumping about like squirrels in the royal carriage, so that the king says he has them fastened in with leather straps lest they should throw themselves overboard.
WE find the following in the
IT is solemnly stated that it was
GENERAL MILES'S PERILOUS ADVENTURE ON
A RAFT IN THE MISSOURI RIVER.
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SHOE.
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COLORADO.—SNOWSHOEING IN MIDDLE PARK—SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN COLORADO HUNTING LIFE IN THE WINTER SEASON.—FROM SKETCHES BY J. HARRISON MILLS.
SEE PAGE 27.
Early on the morning of the 26th the raft was by great exertion launched into the rapid torrent of the Missouri, and towed a couple of hundred yards above the mouth of Squaw Creek, where it was desired to effect a landing. Here General Miles, accompanied by Lieutenants Baldwin and Pope, got on board, with a crew of twelve men armed with long cottonwood poles, and pushed out on the perilous voyage. As soon as the raft left the shore the difficulty of the passage fully appeared, the depth of the river being so great that the twenty-feet poles little more than struck bottom, and the current almost carried overboard those endeavoring to use them. Rapidly borne down the swift stream, making but little progress, the raft passed Squaw Creek before half the passage was effected, and below frail ice extended out towards the centre of the river. Still the men worked vigorously, when suddenly the raft was carried with immense force full upon a huge snag, and, with a fearful jar, stuck fast, the men being nearly thrown off by the shock. To add to the horrors of the situation, a rapid firing was heard, and the cry that the pickets were firing arose.
A more desperate situation could scarcely be conceived. Imprisoned on a frail raft in the middle of the most dangerous of rivers, with a crowd of unarmed men close by, huddled together, and the prospect of an attack from the opposite shore staring them in the face, huge blocks of ice rushing down upon the craft—all combined to form a situation of utter helplessness. However, the clear voice of the General rang out above the clamor, ordering the assembly sounded, the banks lined, the cause of the firing ascertained, and a boat (which had been constructed from a wagon-bed covered with canvas) sent out. The canvas-covered wagon-bed succeeded in reaching the raft, the men using spades for paddles. The rope which was to be stretched across the river was on the raft, and the central position was of advantage as one point of fastening. The wagon-bed was then sent over to the opposite shore with the rope, and was secured. The next object was to reach the other bank, and the attempt was first made to reach this, and then another snag half way, but it was discovered that there was not sufficient rope. Another wagon-bed boat was constructed, and sent out with additional rope. This actually succeeded in reaching the first one sent to meet it, and the desired juncture was effected when the swift current capsized the boats, the second of which was so rapidly filling that the rope attached to the north bank had to be loosened, and all was again lost.
It was now progressing towards evening, the party on the raft having been in their narrow prison all day; many, having slipped through the interstices in the raft, were wet and cold and numb. An abandonment of the enterprise became absolutely necessary, else a night must be passed in the water. The river above seemed to have just broken up, for immense ice-floes began to sweep down, striking the raft and boat with terrific force, until one field of solid ice, covering a third of the river, came booming down the raging current. The outer edge alone struck the raft, while the main body advanced directly upon the men in the boat. The huge blocks warned those on the raft that it was high time to make for the shore, and, drawing in the rope from the opposite bank, the raft was loosened from its snag, the first boat manned, and the boatmen paddled for the shore, while the poles on the raft were vigorously plied. The craft, with its thoroughly tired human freight, was hauled in about a quarter of a mile below the scene of their long imprisonment.
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VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC.
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FEBRUARY 26TH.
In 1871 he was relieved of his command by the Cuban Congress, and given the position of General Foreign Commissioner. He came to New York, and rendered valuable services to his country until 1873, when he was superseded by Mr. Mayorga, and sent to France, where he effected important financial negotiations. Upon his return to the city he became prominent in the Uruguay expedition, and after its disastrous failure organized an expedition of which he alone was the leader, and which was abandoned on account of his vessel being severely damaged in a storm. Another expedition was soon after undertaken, with a small sloop and fourteen men, which sailed from New York, May 27th, 1875, and reached Cuba, where Aguilera and his men hid in along the shores, but were finally driven to sea, and returned to this country after great sufferings. He made several further attempts to reach Cuba, the last of which, in August, 1876, seriously impaired his health, and he returned to this city and settled down with his wife and large family of children. His remains lay in state in the the Governor's Room, City Hall, throughout Sunday, February 26th. The American and Cuban flags were displayed at half-mast over the Hall. The Governor's Room was appropriately festooned with flags and banners, conspicuous among which was the first Cuban flag ever made, and which was unfurled at Cardenas, when the Lopez expedition landed there in 1850. Early on Monday morning the body was taken to St. Francis Xavier's Church, where High Mass was celebrated; after which it was temporarily deposited in the marble cemetery, in the presence of a large number of Cuban societies.
CUP.
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RINK, BY MEMBERS OF THE TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT, N. G. S. N. Y.
STATUE OF LIBERTY
ON MADISON SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY.
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HAND OF BARTHOLDI'S STATUE OF LIBERTY.
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BY SETH KINMAN, PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT
HAYES.—SEE PAGE 27.
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BEAR-SKINS BY SETH KINMAN, PRESENTED TO
VICE-PRESIDENT WHEELER.
It stands in Madison Square, and is about eight feet high. The completed section of the statue includes the right forearm and hand, which holds an immense torch, surrounded by a balcony large enough to afford standing room for twelve people. No means of ascent to the balcony have been provided, although there is a spiral staircase inside the arm, which was used for this purpose at the Centennial.
An almost breathless silence pervaded the mass of people who were watching the work, deeply impressed by the enormous proportions of the castings then dangling in the air. At one time the ropes became entangled near the top of the derrick, and a man ran up to straighten them out. As he came down again and halted just below the thumb, everybody was struck by the diminutive size of the man compared with the height of the wrist only. Then the hand was turned with the clasping thumb towards the west side of the Square and the fingers towards the Park, and on all sides could be heard favorable comments on Bartholdi's achievement.
M. Bartholdi sailed for Europe a few weeks ago to push along the work on the other portions of the statue, and as soon as the requisite amount of money is forthcoming, work will be begun upon the large pedestal for the entire statue.
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CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.—SEE PAGE 27.
A national committee has been organized to solicit contributions for the pedestal, and in order to secure a general subscription the amount has been fixed at twenty-five cents per individual.
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WASHINGTON, D. C.—THE NEW NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION—THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, MARCH 5TH, 1877—THE CEREM ON THE EAST PORTICO
OF THE CTOL, WITH BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON CITY.—FROM SKETCHES BY OUR SPECIAL ARTISTS.
THOSE who bet hats on the national election are more interested in what spring styles will be than what Winter fashions were.
AN English tourist asked the brother of Canova, the sculptor, after the latter's death, if he “intended to carry on the business.”
“DO MEN,” asks an exchange, “attempt to gather grapes of thorns?” We should say not, unless the night happens to be unusually dark.
SAYS Seth Green: “A No. 1 mackerel is a better temperance lecturer than John B. Gough ever was. At least it will make a person drink more water!”
“WHOM do you like best, Aunt Jane or Aunt Mary?” asked a little miss. “Oh, Aunt Mary, of course, ’cause She keeps the cookies on the lower shelf.”
A NATURALIZED Chinaman voted in San Francisco, but for whom nobody knows. Four years ago his opinion was “Hollis Gleely topside farmer, but Glant he muchee fight.”
IN Mexico they don't bother with an electoral count as we do. Diaz simply raised fifty soldiers and a bag of doubloons, and walked into the Presidential chair as coolly as a hungry dog in a meat shop.
A REVOLUTION has broken out in San Domingo; but for the sake of history it should be stated that it is not the same one that broke out last week. That one was captured and put in the lock-up before the new one had fairly started.
EMINENT statisticians have calculated that the amount of ingenuity and labor expended by impecunious topers in getting free drinks would, if devoted to any honorable and useful pursuit, pay off the national debt in a little less than six years and eight months.
A MILWAUKEE editor writes in this melancholy strain: “We didn't want our wife to go to the auction, and so we hid her shoes to keep her to home; having an occasion to go out an hour afterwards, we looked for our boots, but they weren't there; neither was our wife. It isn't any use.”
Will go one-third farther than adulterated or short-weight kinds. Consumers may obtain this unequaled powder of grocers, or send 60 cents for 1 lb. can to Royal Baking Powder Co., New York, and receive postage paid, by return mail, with recipes for making the Celebrated Vienna Rolls, Biscuit, Cakes, Corn Bread, Muffins, etc.
TOGETHER.
WHY do people so frequently say to Dr. Pierce, “I suppose your Golden Medical Discovery cures everything?” Because it has been the practice of knavish charlatans to manufacture worthless nostrums and attempt to dupe the ignorant and the credulous by recommending them to cure every form of disease. To such an extent has this been practiced that it is no wonder that many have acquired prejudices against all advertised remedies. But Dr. Pierce does not advertise his standard preparations as “cure-alls,” does not claim that they will perform miracles, but simply publishes the fact that they have been developed as specifics for certain forms of disease for which he recommends them, after having tested their efficacy in many hundred cases with the most gratifying success. It is a fact known to every well-informed physician that many single remedies possess several different properties. Quinine, for instance, has a tonic quality, which suggests its use in cases of debility; an anti-periodic, by which it is efficacious in ague; and a febrifuge property, which renders it efficacious in cases of fever. The result of its administration will also vary with the quantity given and the circumstances under which it is employed. So, likewise, the Golden Medical Discovery possesses both pectoral and alterative, or blood-cleansing properties of the highest order. By reason of these two prominent properties it cures two classes of disease. First, those of the respiratory organs, as throat, bronchial and lung affections, chronic coughs and asthma; and second, diseases of the blood and glandular system, in which affections all skillful physicians employ alteratives, as in cases of blotches, eruptions, ulcers, swellings, tumors, abscesses, and in torpor of the liver or “biliousness.” While its use is, by it combination of properties, suggested in cases of pulmonary consumption, yet you need not take it expecting it will cure you if your lungs are half-consumed, nor because it is recommended as a blood medicine would its proprietor advise you to take it expecting it to cure cancer. It will not perform miracles, but it will cure many grave forms of disease.
HELP for the weak, nervous and debilitated; chronic and painful diseases cured without medicine. Electric Belts and other appliances, all about them, and how to distinguish the genuine from the spurious. Book, with full particulars, mailed free. Address, PULVERMACHER GALVANIC CO., 292 Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Says, “I find Laird's ‘Bloom of Youth’ superior to any Toilet Preparation in Europe. It imparts to the complexion beauty and brilliancy.” Sold by druggists everywhere.
E. & H. T. ANTHONY & CO., 591 Broadway, N. Y., opposite Metropolitan Hotel. Chromos and Frames, Stereoscopes and Views. Graphoscopes, Megalethoscopes, Albums and Photographs of Celebrities. Photo-Lantern Slides a specialty. Manufacturers of Photographic Materials. Awarded First Premium at Vienna Exposition.
“The doctor prescribed, as an experiment, what had been suggested by Dr. (O. W.) Holmes on his late visit— ‘Jonas Whitcomb's Remedy for Asthma,’ a teaspoonful in a wine-glass of water, to be taken every four hours A good night was the result.”
From
Sold by Druggists.
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By the same author,
By the same author,
By the same author,
WILL COMMENCE IN
WILL COMMENCE IN
WILL COMMENCE IN
TO BE ISSUED
FIFTEENTH AND CHESTNUT STS., PHILADELPHIA.
The most centrally located, and on principal promenade.
Terms, $3.50 per day. Elegant Accommodations.
Plants of the newest and finest improved sorts, carefully packed and prepaid by mail. My collection of Strawberries took the first premium for the best Collection, at the great show of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in Boston. I grow over one hundred varieties, the most complete collection in the country, including all the new, large American and imported kinds. Priced descriptive Catalogue, gratis, by mail. Also, Bulbs, Fruit Trees, Roses, Evergreens, Choice Flower, Garden, Tree, Evergreen, Herb, or Fruit Seeds, 25 packets o either for $1.00, by mail.
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The True Cape Cod Cranberry, best sort for Upland, Lowland, or Garden, by mail, prepaid, $1.00 per 100, $5.00 per 1,000. Wholesale Catalogue to the Trade. Agents Wanted.
B. M. WATSON, old Colony Nurseries and Seed Warehouse, house, Plymouth, Mass. Established 1842.
Will be sent by Mail or Express, prepaid, on receipt of price, and their safe arrival guaranteed. In remitting, send P. O. Money Order.
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Address
(Established 1840.)
ROCHESTER, N. Y.
Beautiful Plants,
will be ready in Feb.—with a colored plate of the
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Plants, etc., sent safely by mail 2000 miles, postage free; 12 Roses, $1.00. 20 Verbenas, $1.00. 15 Basket or Bedding Plants, $1.00. 10 Geraniums, $1.00. A 76-page Catalogue, free. 100 other things, cheap.
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THE LIGHT-RUNNING
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sewing-machine. It does not irritate the nerves or tire the muscles; recommended by physicians. Double-thread Lock-stitch; Automatic, self-regulating. Tension and Take-up; compensating journal, and noiseless movement. Uses the largest Shuttle; has most room under the arm; produces the best work in greatest variety. “DOMESTIC” SEWING-MACHINE CO., NEW YORK, CHICAGO, and all leading cities.
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Received the only prize awarded by the International Jury for American-made meerschaum pipes, at the Centennial Exhibition. 1876.
An unrivaled assortment of Meerschaum Pipes, Cigar-holders, Amber Goods, etc., etc., always on hand.
Factory and Wareroom, 117 Fulton Street.
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Send for Illustrated Price List.
IMPORTERS OF METALS,
TIN-PLATE, SHEET-IRON, COPPER, BLOCK-TIN,
WIRE, Etc.
CLIFF ST., between John and Fulton, NEW YORK.
KEEP'S CUSTOM SHIRTS Made to Measure.
The very best, 6 for $9, delivered free everywhere.
Keep's Patent Partly Made Dress Shirts,
The very best, 6 for $7 delivered free everywhere.
An elegant set of Gold-plate collar and sleeve.
Buttons given with each half-dozen Keep's shirts.
Samples and full directions mailed free to any address.
Merchants supplied at small commission on cost.
Trade circulars mailed free on application.
KEEP MANUFACTURING CO., 165 Mercer Street, N. Y.
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Buy the SELF-INKING Columbian.
FROM THE DATE OF THIS ISSUE OF THIS PAPER
Can be secured by all who receive a copy of this week's paper, on compliance with the following
conditions:—The Standard Silverware Company, 14 Maiden Lane, New York, manufacturers of
Pure Coin-Standard Silver Plated Ware, will send to any one entitled to receive the same a Set of
Double Extra-Plated Silver Spoons,
OFFICE STANDARD SILVERWARE COMPANY,
14 Maiden Lane, New York City.
(Signed)
On receipt of this Coupon, together with 75c. to cover express or mailing, engraving, and boxing charges, we hereby agree to send to any address a set of our Pure Coin-Standard, double-extra plated
and on each spoon engrave any desired Initial. All charges are to be prepaid by the 75c. sent in, and the spoons will be delivered at destination free of any other charge.
Good for ninety days from date of this paper, after which this Coupon is null and void.
(Signed)
Should it be desired, any one of the following articles will be sent in lieu of the spoons, on payment
of the following charges: Six solid steel knives, blade and handle one solid piece, best steel,
double nickel and silver plated, $3; retail price, $6. Six forks, double nickel and silver plated,
95c.; retail price, $4.50. If all these goods are desired, enclose the total charges, which will be 75c.
for spoons, $2 for knives, and 95c. for forks; total, $3.70. thus scouring for $3.70 what would cost
you $14 in any other way.
By the terms of this contract this liberal arrangement holds good for only ninety days from the
date of this paper, therefore it is to the interest of all who are entitled to its benefits to see to it
that they are not debarred by reason of the expiration of the time specified. All letters ordering
silverware should be addressed direct to the
